The Golden Bough A study of magic and religion

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In Laos when an elephant hunter is starting for the chase, he
warns his wife not to cut her hair or oil her body in his absence;
for if she cut her hair the elephant would burst the toils, if she
oiled herself it would slip through them. When a Dyak village has
turned out to hunt wild pigs in the jungle, the people who stay at
home may not touch oil or water with their hands during the absence
of their friends; for if they did so, the hunters would all be
“butter-fingered” and the prey would slip through their
hands.

Elephant-hunters in East Africa believe that, if their wives
prove unfaithful in their absence, this gives the elephant power
over his pursuer, who will accordingly be killed or severely
wounded. Hence if a hunter hears of his wife’s misconduct, he
abandons the chase and returns home. If a Wagogo hunter is
unsuccessful, or is attacked by a lion, he attributes it to his
wife’s misbehaviour at home, and returns to her in great
wrath. While he is away hunting, she may not let any one pass
behind her or stand in front of her as she sits; and she must lie
on her face in bed. The Moxos Indians of Bolivia thought that if a
hunter’s wife was unfaithful to him in his absence he would
be bitten by a serpent or a jaguar. Accordingly, if such an
accident happened to him, it was sure to entail the punishment, and
often the death, of the woman, whether she was innocent or guilty.
An Aleutian hunter of sea-otters thinks that he cannot kill a
single animal if during his absence from home his wife should be
unfaithful or his sister unchaste.

The Huichol Indians of Mexico treat as a demi-god a species of
cactus which throws the eater into a state of ecstasy. The plant
does not grow in their country, and has to be fetched every year by
men who make a journey of forty-three days for the purpose.
Meanwhile the wives at home contribute to the safety of their
absent husbands by never walking fast, much less running, while the
men are on the road. They also do their best to ensure the benefits
which, in the shape of rain, good crops, and so forth, are expected
to flow from the sacred mission. With this intention they subject
themselves to severe restrictions like those imposed upon their
husbands. During the whole of the time which elapses till the
festival of the cactus is held, neither party washes except on
certain occasions, and then only with water brought from the
distant country where the holy plant grows. They also fast much,
eat no salt, and are bound to strict continence. Any one who breaks
this law is punished with illness, and, moreover, jeopardises the
result which all are striving for. Health, luck, and life are to be
gained by gathering the cactus, the gourd of the God of Fire; but
inasmuch as the pure fire cannot benefit the impure, men and women
must not only remain chaste for the time being, but must also purge
themselves from the taint of past sin. Hence four days after the
men have started the women gather and confess to Grandfather Fire
with what men they have been in love from childhood till now. They
may not omit a single one, for if they did so the men would not
find a single cactus. So to refresh their memories each one
prepares a string with as many knots as she has had lovers. This
she brings to the temple, and, standing before the fire, she
mentions aloud all the men she has scored on her string, name after
name. Having ended her confession, she throws the string into the
fire, and when the god has consumed it in his pure flame, her sins
are forgiven her and she departs in peace. From now on the women
are averse even to letting men pass near them. The cactus-seekers
themselves make in like manner a clean breast of all their
frailties. For every peccadillo they tie a knot on a string, and
after they have “talked to all the five winds” they
deliver the rosary of their sins to the leader, who burns it in the
fire.